Iraqi Tariq Pistol
Forgotten Weapons
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9m 20s
The official issue sidearm for the Iraqi Army (and many of its police agencies) is the Tariq, a domestically-manufactured copy of the Beretta M1951 pistol. The Beretta is a pretty decent pistol, mechanically fine and comfortable to shoot but hampered by an awkwardly-placed magazine release and safety. Copies of it were used by several middle-eastern nations, including Egypt (the Helwan) and Iraq. The Iraqi-made guns are of an impressively low quality, as you'll see in the video, and apparently an option of last resort for Iraqis able to carry handguns. The same Iraqi factory makes a copy of the Beretta model 70 also called the Tariq (named after a general from the 8th century), but that gun and this one share only the name (and probably manufacturing quality standards).
Tariq pistols have never been commercially imported into the US, and all the ones here (there aren't very many) were brought back by veterans of the various US military missions in Iraq. The paperwork required to legally bring one back has varied in level of difficulty, and is sometimes outright impossible, and a significant fraction of them were brought back without following those formal procedures (aka, illegally). Still, a neat addition to a collection of enemy sidearms from US military history.
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